Has U.S. Treasury become a piggy bank?Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with socialism is that pretty soon you run out of other people’s money.” Apparently what Thatcher failed to consider is that “pretty soon” becomes decades, when you can borrow or print it. Here in our country, the lion’s share of our federal budget goes for the entitlement programs of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. When it comes to the balance or the rest of our b...

Now who belongs downtown?Many American cities now enjoy an amazing reversal of fortune. Once hollowed-out shells mainly for those too poor to move — or those so rich they didn’t have to deal with the poor — cities are again filling up with educated and aspiring young people. They are flooding into Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and other places once given up for dead. The influx of newcomers with money has raised housing prices and property taxes for many longtime re...

Uprooting Obamacare with better ideasAs a child, I was attracted to anything that dealt with medicine. Many stories featured Johns Hopkins Hospital, and eventually I was privileged to spend 36 years at Johns Hopkins working with brilliant and caring colleagues who dedicated their lives to the art and science of healing. After a storybook career that included thousands of operations and many sleepless nights, I looked forward to retirement, thinking it would be relaxing. However, ...

Majestic fire could be catalyst for revitalization of resort cityMy friend Rex Nelson wrote a piece titled “The Shame of Hot Springs” and posted it on his blog, www.rexnelsonsouthernfried.com, on Feb. 21. In it he decried the deterioration of downtown Hot Springs, symbolized by the nailing of plywood over the windows of the old Majestic Hotel on Park Avenue. A week later the hotel burned down. That’s one way to end a historic preservation debate. I have no reason to believe that Rex’s article, or reaction t...

Private option opponents seek exit planLITTLE ROCK — Heading into this year’s legislative session, opponents of Arkansas’ compromise Medicaid expansion vowed to push for an exit plan for a program they see as no different from the law they have been deriding simply as “Obamcare.” Now, they may be the ones in need of an exit strategy. With the impasse over Arkansas’ “private option” heading into its third week, opponents of the plan to use federal Medicaid funds to purchase insuranc...

Should states amend the Constitution?Washington, D.C., isn’t reforming itself, so there’s a movement to have the states do it by amending the Constitution through a provision that has never been used in American history. Article V of the Constitution makes it possible to amend that document in two ways. First, two-thirds of both houses of Congress can propose an amendment that then must be ratified by three-fourths of the states. That’s how all current 27 amendments have been pas...

Bids open for Connecting ArkansasLITTLE ROCK —Bid The largest highway construction program in state history got off to a good start when the Highway Commission opened bids for a $52.7 million project in northwest Arkansas. The project is the next phase in the Bella Vista bypass. It will relieve congestion in that city and eventually become part of the route of Interstate 49 between Canada and New Orleans. It’s the first project in the Connecting Arkansas Program (CAP), which ...

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State Capitol Week in ReviewThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Protecting those who protect usLITTLE ROCK — Last weekend, I participated in my final winter meeting of the National Governors Association in Washington, D.C. These meetings allow governors to come together to share ideas and discuss issues that our states face collectively. As you might expect, other governors approached me about the ground we have broken on health care in Arkansas, both with our Payment Improvement Initiative and with the Arkansas Private Option. Those di...

What time is it? Maybe for a new watchEvery so often I run across a bit of information just by chance that, in one way or another, has touched every life in our country. Such was the case today when I got an email from my friend Cliff Garrison, who had forwarded something sent to him by another friend, Rodney Todd. The Lord only knows where he got it. This is another case where email can serve a very useful purpose in our lives. I have a large number of friends who send me things ...

Intervene? Or end the Syrian War?Whether saber rattling or not, word is out that the White House is “rethinking its options” on intervening in the Syrian war. The collapse of John Kerry’s Geneva 2 talks between the rebels and regime, the lengthening casualty lists from barrel-bomb attacks, and a death toll approaching 150,000, are apparently causing second thoughts. All the usual suspects are prodding Obama to plunge in, if not with troops, at least with a no-fly zone to prev...

Energetic Libertarians choose candidatesWhen the Libertarians held a nominating convention at the Comfort Inn in Little Rock two years ago, they looked like a debating society. When they met in the same place this past Saturday, they looked more like a political party — a small, third party still a long way from winning a major race, but a party nonetheless. Two years ago, a couple of dozen people nominated sacrificial lamb candidates for a handful of offices. The work of gathering ...

Hurray for detailed GOP tax plan proposalA Republican leader is doing something right ... and good. He is Rep. David Camp of Michigan. Camp has issued a detailed plan for simplifying the tax code. That’s his duty as chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, which writes tax law. Reforming the 7,000-page abomination that is our tax laws — and making them fairer — has long been a stated goal of both parties. But it is a notoriously unpleasant job because it involves doing away with ...

The cost of raising the minimum wageOne policy initiative President Barack Obama highlighted in his State of the Union is to increase the federal minimum wage. A fellow Democrat, our own Sen. Mark Pryor, is not echoing Obama’s proposal but rather criticizing the size of the Obama initiative while supporting a smaller state increase. Meanwhile, a new study confirms what economists have said for years — an increase will cost American jobs. Obama is pushing for an almost 40 percent...

Note to task force on FOIA: Just follow the lawA task force has been appointed by the chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and members of the Arkansas news media have been invited to meet with the group Friday. I wasn’t one of the 207 people who got an invitation to the meeting, which isn’t surprising since I’m just a retired editor who continues to write a column. I had a conflict anyway. UA Chancellor G. David Gearhart explained to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette report...

Thanks for the memoriesOn Oct. 15, Scott Smith, then 39, father of three and owner of SKB Insurance, did not know his name or the name of the stranger in the hospital room who seemed important. That stranger was his wife, Kim, of 13 years. Three days earlier, the two were conversing as they prepared for dinner when he collapsed and suffered a seizure-like attack. When he began to regain consciousness two hospitals later, his mind was like a computer hard drive that ...

Medicaid impasse threatens budgetLITTLE ROCK — It’s a popular refrain for Democrats and Republicans alike in Arkansas, especially as they gear up for campaign season: We’re not Washington. We’re different. They may need to rethink that line. Less than a year after Arkansas adopted a first-in-the-nation plan to provide subsidized health coverage to the poor using Medicaid funds, the program’s future remains in limbo after a string of failed votes in the state House. It’s an im...

Eating disorder gives false sense of power, controlMy granddaughter, Olivia Gardner, who is a junior at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., was first diagnosed in 2005 with an eating disorder. A graduate of Mount St. Mary Academy in Little Rock, she wrote an essay about her recovery two years ago and I included it in this column. Here is an update from her. “I noticed I was different when I was about 8 years old. I was smaller than my classmates, and I got a lot of attention for it. My da...

I'm not watching the OlympicsThis is not exactly a newsflash in my house, where, before he left for college, my son had to teach me how to turn on the TV. The thing is, I really don't want to watch the Olympics, even though I spent many of my happier childhood hours watching figure skating on the black-and-white. It's not the athletes' fault. They are doing their best, given everything. But this Olympics, for all the wrong but obvious reasons, seems to be more about the p...

High-tech semper fi across the countryIf you have ever been caught speeding by a police radar unit, you will love this story a friend sent to me a while back. I am not sure whether or not it’s true, but I suspect that it is. It has been many a moon since I have had a speeding ticket, and the cost of the tickets has increased exponentially. The image I have in my mind for getting a ticket of any kind is taking a hundred-dollar bill and setting it on fire, plus an increase in my aut...

Just say no, or try to reformBetween when I wrote this and when you read it, the Legislature may have come to a conclusion on the private option. It doesn’t look that way, but lots can change in a day. Regardless, the debate will continue. Here’s the background. The private option uses Obamacare-targeted dollars intended to enroll people in Medicaid and instead subsidizes the cost of private insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s health care exchanges. It serves Arka...